Rangers need Chris Kreider now more than ever

The Rangers paid a premium, all right, but that’s the cost of doing business in the premium aisle of the NHL’s free-agent market. Artemi Panarin is coming to Broadway after all, and though the Russian winger left what is believed a rather substantial sum of money on the table by rejecting more lucrative offers from the Blue Jackets and Islanders, he will rake in $81.494 million over seven years ($11.642 million cap hit).

As Saul Goodman might say, that’s a lot of bread, man.

The Blueshirts are better with Panarin than without him. Of that there is no question. They have themselves an elite first-line talent who elevates his teammates’ play and should combine with the emerging Mika Zibanejad to create a threat just about every time they’re on the ice. He accelerates the pace, maybe even of more than a game.

Listen, we all know about the perils of assigning instantaneous grades to free agent, and even offseason, machinations. But after losing 50 times this season, the Rangers have seemingly racked up one victory after another since they stopped playing, scoring Kakko Kaapo off a lottery triumph and trading for Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba.

The John Davidson-Jeff Gorton front-office tandem has improved the talent base exponentially. But even as the big-picture implications of giving a seven-year deal to a winger who will turn 28 before the end of the first month of the season cannot quite be calculated, the 2019-20 snapshot remains blurry.

“Keep in mind, this is a process,” Davidson said. “These are pieces that fit a puzzle and we are trying to get that puzzle completed the proper way as quickly as possible.”

The challenge Davidson/Gorton face is completing the puzzle without removing the significant piece called Chris Kreider. That, in fact, is the mandate. Forget the either/or proposition previously posed. The Rangers must navigate through the constraints of the salary cap to accommodate both Panarin and Kreider and must do it knowing that it will cost around a combined $18.5 million per to do so beginning with 2020-21. Not doing so will leave the puzzle incomplete and decelerate the build.

It won’t be easy. Far from it. Even for next season, with Kreider in at $4.625 million on the final year of his deal, the Rangers have about $9.45 million available with which to sign restricted free agents Trouba, Tony DeAngelo, Pavel Buchnevich and Brendan Lemieux. Trouba alone is going to come in around $7.8 million. One needn’t be a direct descendant of Einstein to recognize the dilemma.

But Davidson/Gorton are going to need to get creative, or maybe medieval. Buyouts for extraneous players who may be the nicest guys in the world must be on the table. The Rangers, who appear to be top-heavy with finesse-oriented guys immediately following a playoff tournament in which will often outdid skill, need the element of physicality that Kreider presents, even if not quite consistently enough. The Blueshirts will be pretty with the puck, but someone is going to have to win it.

They need Kreider in front of the net on the power play. They need his straight-ahead speed. They need the 28 goals he scored, coincidentally the same number as Panarin recorded for Columbus. They need his presence in the locker room. They need the one-two punch of Panarin and Kreider on left wing while trying to figure out exactly where Kakko, Fil Chytil, Vitali Kravtsov, Lias Andersson, Brett Howden and Ryan Strome fit. Are they wingers, and if so, which side is best? Do they belong on the flank or in the middle? Versatility is an asset, but so is stability.

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Theoretically, the Rangers could go into next season with Kreider on the final year of his contract and see how it plays out. But no one believes that’s in either party’s best interest.

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The team most certainly does not need a third straight year of Deadline Drama. You know what it will be from October through February: What. About. Chris?

The seven-year, $49 million deal Anders Lee signed Monday with the Islanders sets the benchmark for Kreider. Maybe he would come in at $6.75 million per rather than $7 million.

But you get the idea. Now the Rangers must come up with a plan so they can meet that standard. Clearly, Buchnevich, who is likely to come in between $3.2 million and $3.5 million on a two-year deal, would have to go. So would Vlad Namestnikov, with one year remaining at $4 million. The Blueshirts will need minimum-type salary guys to fill in and contribute at the bottom.

But they need Kreider at the top. Without him, the puzzle will be incomplete.